Explorica US Omdömen 

Our tour director Jenny O. was one of the best. The food the first couple of days was delicious. Ziplining, and whitewater rafting was fabulous.

Explorica did well with setting up tickets. Explorica needs to explain how to get a hold of them when things go south. I paid 210 euros out of my own pocket for a situation where a student left her passport in Florence. I don't mind paying for it, but Jeremy, our guide, and Ezhrat, our bus driver, came up with the solution to our situation ...no thanks to Explorica. You didn't even take my call on the emergency number.

The tours and visits were wonderful. I wonder why this sort of tour isn't done in reverse order. By the final days, my students were exhausted (and I think the quiet beautiful towns of Nice and Montecarlo might have been the better end to the trip).

The tour guides were either great or terrible. There was no in between. The tour guides in the Roman Forum were phenomenal. The tour guides in the Vatican Museum and the streets of Florence were impossible to understand. IT might be a good idea to share a video or two with the bus drivers so that people can know what to look for before we get there.

THe Sienna excursion was not explained in any sort of detail prior to the trip. We had random people sign up for it, and they did not get their money back. It seems like an unfortunate situation. They signed up for the excursion without any knowledge about the rest of us who were unwilling to go. Instead, they just donated money to an excursion no one felt like taking.

Pisa needed a tour guide.

St. Peter's Basilica needed a tour guide.

The food at the restaurants needs some variety. If people are going to pay around $5000 for a tour, the dinners should not be an afterthought. THe best dinner we had was the one we took without Explorica's help. Evidently, you used to send people to a vinyard for a nice meal, but that is no longer part of the tour. That was hands down the best tour of the week (besides the Roman Forum).

The accommodations were great, but some of the other touring groups had no manners or expectations for their groups. We were shocked by the behaviors of other groups in Rome. They pulled the fire alarm in our hotel and caused a lot of disturbances. I felt embarrassed to be connected with them in any way.

Our bus driver and our guide were wonderful. Jeremy tried very hard to accommodate all of our needs. He and Ezhrat were great. They did have their hands full with forty of us, but they managed us quite well.

I will speak with Nabille at Explorica about what went well and what might be improved. I am interested in trying another tour with your company, but I am somewhat frustrated by the dinner situations (and some of the opportunities missed).

Peace,

Dan Green

George was an incredible guide went above and beyond to make every moment of the trip special. The food was amazing, the logistics of getting town to town were good. Amazing trip if you want your students to see Europe and learn you better request George to be your guide.

I was an adult traveling with my 8th grade daughter on Explorica's Switzerland and the Mediterranean trip with her school teachers and classmates. We visited many amazing places, but I would not travel with Explorica again.

The good
-We visited some of the most beautiful places in Europe- 4 countries in 10 days!
-The trip exposed the children to so many cultures and languages.
-It was a memorable experience to share with my daughter and her friends.

The bad
-The hotels where we stayed were outside of the cities listed on the itinerary. The location of most of the hotels was industrial and were not well thought out at all. We spent MANY unnecessary hours every day backtracking to and from the destinations. For many of our stops, there was only time to rush through the sites and maybe eat a grab and go lunch. We felt extremely rushed most of the time.
- The bathroom on the bus was not in service, and our tour director did not want to stop for frequent bathroom breaks. We were constantly being given mixed messages about hydrating in the 90 degree weather, but also to "hold our pee."
-Some of the accommodations were dirty and very dated. In more than one location, bathrooms had visible mold and smelled musty. There were roaches in the hallway in our Italy hotel. When bringing these concerns to the front desks, room changes were not available. Sometimes students were even expected to share a bed with another traveler or just sleep on an uncomfortable cot. After seeing the hotel prices advertised on their signage, it made me wonder where Explorica is allocating the money we paid for the trip. At $5,000-$7,000 per traveler, I expected better.
-Dinners provided were mediocre at best, and didn't really reflect the typical cuisine of the area. We always seemed to be rushing back to the hotel for low quality dinner vs getting more time to explore.
-Many cultural sites listed as "visit" on the itinerary just meant we could view it from the bus or on a walking tour. It didn't include entrance to the attraction. By the time I learned this, it was too late to purchase tickets on my own. It felt very misleading.

All in all, it was a memorable experience, but I could have planned a better trip for my daughter and me for much less money and much less time on the bus.

This tour was truly one of a kind. The most remarkable and unforgettable trip so meticulously organized. I’ve taken other tours with Explorica and I loved every single one of them, but there was something about this trip that made it unforgettable; everything was so well organized, from planning to execution, from beginning to drop-off at the airport checkout, it was amazing, thank you very much. Planning my next trip, thank you very much for some unforgettable memories.

We had some travel issues and although I think communication could be improved, in the end, we were given the help we needed.

From Kayla to Lucas everyone was amazingly helpful.

My daughter went on a trip recently to Paris, Provence, and Barcelona. She enjoyed herself, but comparing it to a previous trip she did to Japan she didn’t love it. With the other trip, they had more cultural experiences and spent more time visiting stuff. Many of the sights in Paris were drive by and take a picture. I think the description of the trip makes this feel misleading. It seems to hint that you’ll be visiting the places not just rush by. Also I don’t think the best use of time was made. One day they were done at 5 with no sites to see within walking distance. My daughter also didn’t enjoy the food on the Paris portion of the trip because again it was lacking cultural impact. A final note is they had scheduled layover of only an hour in Amsterdam. I feel like that’s a rookie move for anyone that has traveled internationally and they’re supposed to be experts.

Gioconda was a great leader. Her knowledge about all the places she took us was exceptional. We loved the places she took us to eat. There were different options of food and she took orders in advance, that way when we got into the restaurant we didn’t have to wait a long time. My travelers and I liked the idea that she offered us to take us to a laundry place where we can leave our clothes and pick it up the following day. We also loved that one of the hotels had a laundry room including at the stay open 24 hrs for us to use. I would definitely would love to have on other trip with Gioconda and Edgar as a great, cautious and polite driver.

Our tour guide for our trip to Costa Rica, Javier, was one of the highlights of the trip! He was so friendly, knowledgeable, attentive, patient, energetic ... you name the good quality, he had it. Most of the places we went, people there knew him and you could see they were genuinely happy to see him. It was hard to say goodbye to Javi at the end of the trip. We saw so many amazing things and everything was so well thought out. When there was an issue with something, like a hotel room or something, he was right there to help and get things straightened out. Such a great trip!

Ivan, our guide, was excellent and did a fabulous job of getting us all where we needed to be in a timely fashion. Our group bonded with him and he made the trip special. My only negative is the quality of the Four Season Hotel in Glifayda. It is a two star at best but that was minor. The cruise was spectacular. We loved all the dancing and karaoke! The shows and food were great. We especially loved the beach day in Rhodes.
TY

This is difficult review to write because one must balance the positive against the negative and not allow the bad aspects to overwhelm the good parts. With that in mind, I will begin with the positives about our school trip to Greece. We had a GREAT local tour director. Georgios was wonderful! He was knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and flexible. He made an effort to connect with both the chaperones and the students. The kids loved him. The guides at the various sites (Acropolis, Delphi, Olympia, etc.) were informative and engaging. Experiencing these sites was one of the highlights for the students. I understand Explorica had to pack a lot into the days we had, but some added downtime would have been appreciated, especially with the heat at the end of June.

The big negative was the accommodations at the start of the trip. We were placed at the Hotel Four Seasons in Glyfada. It may have been the worst hotel in all of Europe. They were so many problems that it is difficult to list them all here. It was DIRTY with cockroaches in many of our rooms. Trash and used bandages were found in drawers. Hair was on the bedsheets and pillows. There was the smell of mold in many rooms. Doors did not work. When these issues were brought to the attention of the hotel staff, they responded with advice like to stomp on the cockroaches.

We were booked to stay at this horrific place for the first two nights of the trip and then for three more at the end of the trip. The leader of the trip immediately contacted Explorica about changing our hotel for the last three nights. We could bear staying for the first two nights, but we were seriously bothered with a return. After checking out, Explorica originally responded by saying there were no hotel rooms available for the last three nights. A quick Google search showed many available rooms that would have accommodated our group. It is disheartening that their first response was an obvious lie. After putting more pressure on the company to help us, they responded with a hotel change, but each person would need to pay $272 more. That was unacceptable. We should have never been booked to an unsafe and dirty hotel in the first place. Now they wanted to fleece our students to get us a minimally acceptable hotel. Eventually, they agreed to waive the additional charge. The hotels going forward were very good. But it begs the question of why they did not originally book us there. The reviews of the Hotel Four Seasons on various travel sites are consistently negative. Explorica had to know there were many issues with this hotel.

Reviews are meant to recommend the service. It is impossible for me to recommend Explorica because they broke our trust. When the issues with the hotel were brought to their attention, they responded by lying that there was nothing they could do. Then they tried to charge us more money to make the change. It took several days and many calls and emails by our school leader and parents to finally get their attention. It tells me what their priority is and it is not the safety and comfort of their clients.

I cannot recommend Explorica to my fellow teachers.

Our first international tour was simply amazing! We had some bumps and bruises (literally) but our guide, Nadia, and World Assist helped us through all our issues. The students and teachers on the trip had a fabulous time in London, Paris and Rome!

We had a great time in Italy and Greece. I absolutely loved our tour director Elena. She as very knowledgeable about the places we visited. She gave great suggestions on what to do during our free time. We had a couple of hiccups on the trip but Elena was right on top of getting things fixed so the tour would move on smoothly. I would also like to give a shout out to Georgia, our tour director in Greece. I loved all the places we visited. Wish we could’ve spent more time in Greece. We met some really nice people from Wisconsin, Houston, and Philadelphia. My only issue with trip is the long wait time at the airport for the connecting flights. We had a layover for 6 hrs in Atlanta. I know this might not be something that can be fixed but the wait was way too long.

The guide Tomo-san was amazingly helpful and informative. All the students loved him. The addition of the excursion to Hiroshima was a good experience for all. The food selections were solid - the making your own okonomiyaka experience was definitely enjoyed by the students!

Overall the service was great as usually. Some issues with hotels and breakfast but otherwise nicely done. Also our Tour Director Mirianna was exceptional and would like to use in future tours.

The trip my daughter went on was not ok in the least my daughters health along with other children health was not a priority. The hotel they put the group in was gross with blood on the walls and bed and who knows what else. My daughter has celiac disease and her health didn’t matter ether she was served hotdogs for breakfast and can bet those were not gluten free. With the amount of money these families paid I expected better do not use this company.

What made my experience great was that there was no time during which I was bored. Everything from the Tour Director link-up to dinner schedules was extremely well coordinated. Every aspect of the tour was well thought out and planned.

Our guide was amazing. She was friendly, enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and fun. The trip would not have been the same without her. We had a great balance of scheduled events and free time. I felt little stress because everything was taken care of which was so nice.

Our hotels were wonderful and centrally located. The food in every single place was fabulous and delectable. Our tour director was superb in every single way.